Was Russian meddling a smokescreen for Obama?

Frank Aquila

Democrats have been trying to create an impression that Russia influenced the 2016 election. They have speculated about Trump's team, businesses, taxes, campaign, and Trump, himself colluding with the Russians without providing any evidence. They speculated that voting machines were hacked by the Russians as well as Hillary's unsecure and illegal server, her campaign manager's email, and the DNC without providing an ounce of evidence.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released emails and records were not disputed and he has stated there was no Russian connection. Instead, he implied that Seth Conrad Rich, a Democrat staffer was the leaker. Rich was murdered on July 20, 2016 in what was reported as a robbery gone wrong at 4:30 a.m. However, his watch, wallet, and phone were still on him and bruises were found on his hands, face, and knees as a sign he had earlier fought against those tied to his murder.

While the Democrats attempted to look for ties to Russia with Trump, they ignored Hillary's approval of 20 percent of American uranium sold to Russia just before millions were given to the Clinton Foundation by the Russians or the many meetings she had with the Russian ambassador, including other prominent Democrats.

After Trump began his transition to the presidency, various leaks within the government began to emerge of Trump and his staff's private conversations. General Flynn resigned and Trump acknowledged private conversations with various leaders were leaked to the media.The New York Times reveled that in the final days of the Obama administration, the power of the National Security Administration, which does surveillance, were expanded. The New York Times also reported a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) warrant was sought in June to examine "U.S. persons in Donald Trump's campaign." That request was denied; but a request in October was granted by three judges appointed by President Bill Clinton after evidence was presented possibly related to the Trump campaign and its alleged links to two Russian banks.

A FISA warrant is a criminal warrant to do surveillance, which means the sitting president of the incumbent party was investigating the presidential candidate and his campaign.To prevent American fingerprints, the Obama administration used GCHQ, which is the official British spying agency to monitor Trump and his associates with access to the NSA database. Three intelligence sources and the British have confirmed they assisted the Obama administration and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

If all is true, American citizens had illegal surveillance. Further complicating matters, Hillary Clinton, as a private citizen, received such information from the Obama administration, which immediately used the information on behalf of her campaign. These are arrestable high crimes.

Further, President Obama received the action between his attorney general and the FBI on the FISA surveillance in his daily intelligence briefing.

All along, Americans have been duped to believe the Russians were colluding with the Trump campaign without a shred of evidence. Now, it is beginning to appear the Russian hoax was a smokescreen to cover up the activity of surveillance against Trump and his campaign by the Obama administration.

Frank Aquila is president of the South San Joaquin Republicans and author of the book, "Sarah Palin Out of Nowhere." He may be emailed at mantecarepublicans@yahoo.com